police. what a great band. i'm excited. we'll have one from the trio here. >> "the cycle" has arresting television today. >> plus the obama mandate. the president campaigned on tax hikes for the rich, and he won. why haven't republicans gotten the message? here this loud and clear. "the cycle" starts right now. welcome to "the cycle." it's nice to be back here at the table. now that the elections are over, will washington do anything or will the town always on break continue to object structure, politicize and, of course, our favorite phrase kick that can down the road? the new washington is basically the same z the one before the election. the president is still obama, the senate is still solidly democratic and the house is republican, albeit by a small erma jort.

three people in charge had this to say after the election. >> tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. >> mr. president, this is your moment. we're ready to be led. not as democrats or republicans but americans. >> it's better to dance than to fight. it's better to work together. everything doesn't have to be a fight. >> i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. >> because the american people expect us to find common ground, we're willing to accept additional revenues via tax reform. >> legislation is the art of compromising and consensus building. >> despite all the frustrations of washington, i've never been more hopeful about the future. >> i'm not up suggesting we compromise on our principles but we commit ourselves to creating an atmosphere where we can see

common ground, where it exists and seize it. >> i want to work together, but i want everyone to also understand you can't push us around. >> so to help interpret what we just heard, we bring in a man who lives, eats and drinks washington. that's our friend howard fineman, he's the editorial director of the huffington post media group. >> guilty as charged. >> a con ciliary tone there. what struck me yesterday with john boehner he was saying as we approach the fiscal cliff, boehner was saying yesterday that the bottom line for republicans after this election is the same as it's been for 22 years. that is, that any kind of income tax hike, especially for the wealthy, is off the table for them. do you have a sense of what the white house is thinking is on the table? we approach january 1st. is it that they are really eager mainly to strike a grand bargain

they can sell as a major bipartisan achievement? is the idea of fighting past january 1st if necessary to get rid of the bush tax cuts for the wealthy americans more of a priority for them? >> no. i think they want a deal if they can get it. you're right to listen closely to john boehner, because what he had is he'll accept some revenues in the context of tax reform, a big, wonderful, fuzzy nebulous idea. what he won't expect initially is a change in the rates. of course, that's what it's about. it's about the rates for the highest income earners. and that's where john boehner is refusing to start out in the negotiations. also, the person who is missing from the sound bites we just say, the video we saw was mitch mcconnell, the republican leader of the senate. he's up in 2014. he's got rand paul, a tea party guy, as his other republican senator in the state. mcconnell's worried about a challenge from the right to the

point where he hired rand paul's campaign manager who was ron paul's campaign manager to be his mcconnell campaign manager coming up. so mitch mcconnell is the missing piece of the puzzle here. he's the person the president has had the least success in dealing with. they have no personal relationship whatwhatsoever, th president and john boehner played golf once or twice. boehner as a person is of a more amenable guy. the white house wants a deal, and the reason they want a deal is because of the economy. if we get tangled up here in d.c. and go over the cliff or down the gradual slope, it's not -- it's not going to be good for the economy. there are people waiting to invest. there's a world watching. everybody agrees that if a deal can be cut, economies around the world, not just in america, are going to benefit. >> yeah. i think the consequences aren't immediate if we get to january

1st, but i'll get into that later. i have a monologue -- >> psychologically they're immediate. >> let me ask you about within the democratic party, then. if the white house's priority is to get a deal, and the bottom line for house republicans is no rate hikes, if the white house were pursue this tax reform without rate hike framework and include in that the entitlement issue with medicare and social security and maybe medicare, that was floated a little bit last year. if that's the kind of package the white house can negotiate with republicans, is there a concern within the democratic party of a revolt against that deal with democrats? >> i think so. i think the president has more leverage with his own party, obviously. he just won re-election. he's beloved by most democrats, if for no other reason that he won again and saved them from what they viewed as the horrors of a republican administration here. i think he'll have some leverage, but it could be tough. he's got to deliver his own party. i think the more difficult

problem is a logistical one. if you try to do that big of a reform package, i don't see any way they can actually logistically get it done by the end of the year, in which case the other phrase they use, kicking the can down the road, would make sense. only if they're already negotiating on that bigger thing. another thing i would say, which is the president had the help of bill clinton in the campaign. i think bill clinton can also help him with the problem that you raised. bill clinton doesn't have as much leverage with the -- if you will, the progressive base of the democratic party as bill clinton did with some other voters in the election. i don't know how much help the president would be, the former president would be up on the hill. >> howard, let's talk about obstructionism for a second. i think it is absolutely fair to categorize some of the behavior of the gop over the last four years as obstructionist, but i think that democrats shoulder

some responsibility there as well. i want to play a clip from w's state of the union address in 2006 in which he predicts our current mess we're in right now and then democrats essentially applaud their own obstructionism. let's play that. >> that will present future congresses with impossible choices. staggering tax increases, immense deficits, or deep cuts in every category of spending. congress did not act last year on my proposal to save social security. >> yeah. so, will obstructionism really ever going away? it seems like it's the hallmark of nearly every administration. >> i think that's sort of the way politics runs right now. people speak -- the leaders in congress speak to the bases of their own party. it's like you took the house of commons in britain and instead

of having the benches face each other you have them facing in the opposite direction. that's kind of the way that congress operates, and as john boehner said, it's going to take leadership to change it. i think the president never has liked particularly getting down in the weeds and dealing with congress. he doesn't like smoozing the members of congress and having them down. he doesn't like doing all that lyndon johnsonesque stuff tha you have to do in washington. i think he's going to have to do that. politics is the art of getting people who don't like you to do things they don't want to do in the interest of the country. and i think that's the president's big challenge this time. he's got -- having played the outsource game as a candidate superbly twice with an organization and a campaign theory that people will be studying for decades in terms of social media contact and so forth. he's got to do another sort of

social media contact that's different from facebook and twitter. he has to do it person-to-person here, and he should be beginning it right now. he has to be an entirely different guy in terms of how he operates around here to get past the kind of thing you're talking about. >> howard, i want to switch gears a little bit and talk about republicans particularly in the house. one of the things that did become clear in this election, latino voters made their voices heard loud and clear, and we will likely have some attempted action on comprehensive immigration reform. we see some republicans sort of signalling that they want to shift to the center on this. of course, lindsey graham has been outspoken for a while, but jeb bush, perhaps john boehner, but i think it's not so simple as having leaders in the party come out and say, oh, we're going to move to the center on this issue. the republican party has spent so long, number one, purifying its representatives from primaries on the right, from club for growth and tea party, and number two, really

demagoguing on the issue and calling for anything that provides a path for citizenship amnesty. it's not just the republican leaderships or representatives that were the problem. when i ran for congress in virginia, we found immigration wasn't the number one issue but for republican voters it was an extremely intense, emotional issue. i don't think it's so simple as just the leadership coming out and saying this is where we want to move on immigration. what do you think? >> i don't think it's that simple, and i think the tea party in particular has a tone in it and content in it that's tree extremely skeptical about immigrati immigration. most of the tea party people were re-elected, not all of them. this is a problem with taxes and immigration. of the 55 or 56 people that we described as tea party republicans in the house, 51 won re-election in the gerrymandering jurisdictions. the republican party has an identity crisis it has to

confront. the bush family, george w. bush, j jeb bush and the nextgen rags gn of them, including george p. bush in texas and half-mexican, have to bring the republican party back to their senses on latinos. george w. bush in 2004 got almost 40% of the hispanic vote. i think that mitt romney got 25, 26, 27%. they've got to turn that around at the grassroots and it's gog to work its way from the bottom up. the tea party people won't make it ha happen. >> the gop lost because they failed to recognize and deal with long-term demographics trends. the white part of the electorate has been steadily dropping for decades. the latino and black electorate will continue to rise. they're a mad men party in aa "modern family" world. the president should shove it in their face. put massive immigration reform

on the table right away and either get what latinos in america need or force the gop to again rebrand themselves at anti-latino and deal with that in 2014 and 2016. what do you think about that as a strategy? >> i think that's a nice thing to say, and i agree with you you on the sentiment. i think in terms of political strategy for the president it's a bad idea, and the reason i say that is his number one priority has been to prevent another recession, to prevent a downturn, and to reap what's psychological as well as investment benefits can be had. there can be a lot of them in breaking the gridlock on taxes and the budget. i think that's really crucial for the psychology of the world economy, for the reality of the world economy. if he can get that done, then he goes to immigration. i can understand why a lot of latinos would be upset, but on

the other hand he has to tell them, look, economy and jobs is number one for all of us. then we'll do emigration. i don't think he right now needs to be in the position of scoring political points. that's what he was doing in the election, and if he puts that aside temporarily, he can make that a bargaining chip. he could say to john boehner and mitch mcconnell, i can drive stake through your heart in immigration, guys, but i'll wait on immigration while we get the jobs done. if you screw around, maybe i will. he can use it as a bargaining chip right now and get to it six months from now. >> we spent all this year talking about how 2012 was a mirror image in 2004. in the aftermath, 2004 bush goes after immigration. hourld fineman, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> up next, the president may stay put and a lot of his trusted team obama members say they're moving on.

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with the campaign finally over, focus now is shifting to the president's second term agenda and the inner circle that will help him to achieve it. we're talking about his executive ab net. look at all those smiling faces,

but with the new term comes a new inner circle. the last two presidents replaced about half their cabinet after winning a second term, and obama has actually had one of the most stable cabinets so far in four years. he's only filled three vacancies, but come january, more are expected to walk out the door. the two biggest could be secretary of state hillary clinton and treasury secretary tim geithner. also apparently looking for an exit are defense secretary leon panetta and steven chu and also ken salazar. even attorney general eric holder and transportation second ray lahood, the only republican left in the cabinet, could be leaving as well. in 2008 obama told "time" magazine he wants his cabinet to be a team of rivals saying, quote, i don't want people who just agree with me. i want people continually pushing me out of my comfort zone. what should we expect this time

around? i would bring it to the table. so i think the biggest one people are talking about is who is going to replace hillary clinton. the two names who have voted is u.n. ambassador susan rice and john kerry. i have no problem with susan rice. i think she's fantastic and unfortunate how she's been treated recently. i tell you, john kerry during this campaign has been fantastic in his debate prep with the president. i thought his speech as the dp nc was brilliant, and i think he would be a terrific diplomat. there's concerns that if he was nominated then the senate -- his senate seat would be open and scott brown could have another shot at getting into the senate. i don't think that would be the worst thing in the world for the president, especially since we picked up seats this time around. scott brown, as a republican who may actually across the aisle, could actually serve as a useful political tool for the president. that will be interesting to watch. the other one, of course, is treasury secretary time geithner

leaving. one of the outside names that's been floated is cheryl sandberg, coo of facebook. she's the first one and she's had a terrific choice. another name i haven't heard but my virginia centrist byas leads me to bring up is mark warner, senator from virginia, great businessman, has bipartisan appeal. i think he could be strong as well. the last one that's opening up is chief of staff, jennifer g n granholm apparently she is -- >> yes. >> apparently they really want to get her in in some position. >> more jenny g. >> the energy, cheerleading. >> unrelenting positive vibe and energy. >> for jenny g. >> i'd like to get rahm back. not a possibility. >> kerry is interesting to me. i don't see scott brown as a

senator is good for obama. he joined all the republican obstructionism for the last few years. if he broke with his party he'd face the primary challenge and get beat. i don't see the value of that. if the white house has the instinct to bring in john kerry as secretary of state, i don't necessarily think they should be desueded by the threat of scott brown back to the senate. he lost by a sizable margin in year, and it made a strong statement about in massachusetts is much more difficult for republicans to run for federal office than for statewide office. you had four republican governors there in the last couple of decades. scott brown was the first and only republican to win a senate race since 1972. >> it would be a special election again. >> he did. ion at that, look what happened. there was a congressman up there, his name is john tierney, who should have been one of the easiest democrats to beat this year. a gambling scandal and republicans got a pro-choice

candidate to run against him. tierney survived. >> scott brown is a powerful person running against any democrat. i'd rather keep john kerry in that spot. >> scott brown took away from this election, i don't want to run my next campaign for federal office in massachusetts and run the campaign for governor. i don't think he's run for the senate seat. >> if we're talking about moderates or so-called moderates, it's interesting to consider olympia snow or joe lieberman. they could be brought back. that's interesting. i think my friend cory booker, newark, new jersey, mayor could find himself a home in the white house. if there's -- is there a secretary of twitter? maybe chief of staff. i'm not kidding. as for secretary of state, i think we'll have a very clear indication through this pick what direction the administration is going in terms of tone. i think if they go for susan

rice, who i think you disagree, krystal, is a disgray as lindsey graham said, she's incompetent or untrust kwoworthy and will b investigated on benghazi. that is investigated. we had intelligence 24 hours after the attacks in realtime, and she went out and gave misinformation or lies. that will be investigated. if they go with that and run towards controversy, that is a signal batten down the hatches. we're in for a fight. if they go with with john kerry or the other pick, national security adviser tom donlon, i think it's clear they're sort of let's get through this peacefully, smoothly and move on. >> i'm not sure that's what i would read or a lot of people would read from picking susan rice. they don't want to let the republicans decide who we pick for secretary of state. i want john kerry to stay in the senate. i don't want scott brown to run

for senate next year. he's a he powerful person to run against because he's just been senator. i want to see mitt romney in the white house. i want to see mitt romney as secretary of commerce or this new secretary of business role. definitely a talented guy. look, is it just a mean that something is actually not going to happen? probably. 57 million people voted against barack obama. a lot of them would feel an olive branch from picking mitt romney. he was a talented guy, a business guy. it is a shrewd sort of appeasement move. is it going to happen? no. >> i don't know how much the left loves mitt romney now. >> i'm not there. i'm not there. >> interested in giving haim position, but the other thing i want to see -- the other thing i want to see at the treasury is i have somebody who is passionate, brilliant, experienced, passionate and passionate who would be extraordinary choice. run the bite. >> we're sitting here arguing

about whether we should do the $4 trillion plan that kicks the can down the road for the president for 2017 or burn it to the ground. both of which are reckless, irresponsible and stupid, and the fact of the matter is, until we actually -- i'm sorry to lose my temper, but i tell you what. i've been coming on tv for three years doing this, and the fact of the matter is that there's a refusal on both the democratic and the republican side of the aisle to acknowledge the mathematical problem, which is that the united states of america is being extracted. >> a calming voice in this time. a brilliant and passionate man, dylan radigan would lead us into a few financial fiscal economic future. i love it. >> your romney idea, though, i got a perfect place for him in the obama administration. secretary of health and human services whose main job is to implement obama care.

who would know better than the guy who came up with the idea? >> that idea i do like. the cabinet of tomorrow, and next up we put the spotlight on the senate. majority whip dick durbin is calling for a more positive path forward. we have his former senior aide jimy williams in the guest spot. here's a booking producer, tammy favorite police song "message in a bottle." ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪

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don't stand so close to me is my police song. seats are almost evenly he split representing a divided electorate, and the man tasked with bringing everybody together

har harry reid is not interested in compromise. he said it's better to dance than fight, but he sung a different tune when candidate romney wanted to reach across the aisle on his claim that they would work with him on his agenda. reid said romney's fantasy that senate democrats will work with him to pass in very conservative agenda is laughable. if not the majority leader, who will emerge as a power player to help tackle the most pressing issues? fiscal cliff, anyone? sorry, steve. i know you hate that phrase. in the guest spot today helping us identify senators to depoll larize our senate is jimmy williams who worked with dick durb durbin. >> jimmy -- >> that's not easy. >> jimmy, so you heard harry reid's obstructionist mantra before the election. should we expect a softer harry reid to emerge after the election? >> harry reid was a boxer in

college, so i think that tells you -- he was a capitol hill policeman before he was a united states senator and the majority leader. that gives you everything you need to know about the majority leader. >> so no, then? >> the answer is i think the comment that you put up on november 2nd was preelection date, and now he is going to be leading an expanded democratic caucus. he wants -- listen, his reputation is on the line e.s the senate to be old school, to get aalong, to do things, to produce things. so i know -- yes, kornacki does hate the words "fiscal cliff," but watch for the fade-away of the gang of six. there's three democrats and republicans that are working together to walk us away from the fiscal cliff on august of 2011 and watch for the president of the united states to come in and focus on thanksgiving on getting a deal and bringing the leaders together and doing a summit at camp david and watch for a big deal. wall street wants it and america wants it and the public wants it

and the senate needs it big-time. frankly, you have 33 senators up for re-election, 20 democrats and 13 republicans in cycle as of yesterday. they all want to make a deal and say they did something. >> jimmy, something interesting happened a few weeks before the election, these discussions you talk about were beginning. democratic republican about the tax reform framework and chuck schumer, one of the top democrats came out and gave a speech and said, let's slow down and be careful. if there's a bipartisan deal the absolute bottom line should be and must be we won't strike a deal until the bush tax cuts for incomes over $250,000 go away. if we all agree to that, then beyond that we can talk about entitlements and other tax cuts and things like that. i'm wondering, we have a more liberal senate coming in right now. is there more pressure from senate democrats to pursue the line that chuck schumer was outlining. >> there's more pressure to get a deal period no matter what the president signs into law so the entire country breathing this

collective exhaustive sigh of relief. that's the most important thing. i appreciate what chuck schumer said, but harry reid is the leader and dick durbin is the whip. harry reid came out yesterday and said he's running again and he's not even up for re-election. there is a hierarchy in the senate. it is the place where they send cra crazy legislation to cool off and become better. i think you will find the max baucuss of the world and others that come together and get a deal and get it done quickly before the christmas break. >> you talk about the hierarchy of the senate. let's talk about the star of the incoming freshman class, elizabeth warren. do you see her going on the obama model of things or the hillary clinton model of things to put your head down and be a workhor workhorse? >> i worked there for seven years. senators that come in and do what they're supposed food in

their first term, which is sit on the back bench, be quiet and learn everything you can possibly learn and get into that good old boy and women's club, 20 of them, that's a smart way of doing it. the hillary clinton way of doing things, which is coming in and learning and not being a grandstander. so i suspect that senator-elect warren will do that. is she smart? no doubt. she's a harvard professor, for god's sakes. my gut says she'll come in and take place on her committees and buckle down and hunker down and learn as much as she can. i don't e her doing presidential ambitions, aspirations very quickly. >> jimmy, do you think filibuster reform is really going to happen, and given that the house is still controlled by republicans, what would it practically mean? >> the word on the street in capitol hill is that leader reid is going to move for filibuster reform when they come back in the 113th congress in the first day under the new organizational

rules. what is it? is it just for judicial appointments? for everything? keep in mind the senate runs ko consensus. in 1 of 100 objects to anything on the floor, that can be any kind of motion from the simplest to the most important, if any senator objects, the chamber grinds to a halt. my gut says ep doesn't want to do anything that can, a, backfire on him and if the democrats lose in the next cycle, they have to operate under the same rules. >> yjimmy williams, thank you. >> we'll swing to the capitol and look at the house. there's a new candidate i'm watching for 2016. his name? jace roshson of duck dynasty. on last night's episode stood up for redneck owners everything that want to skin a deer, eat a chicken and burn leaves on their own front yard. >> we are endowed by our creator

with certain unalienable rights. >> amen. >> life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. >> that's right. >> chickens make me happy. they get insects. they fertilize your yard. and if anything goes wrong, you can put them in a pot. >> i brought a casserole. >> if i had to live in a neighborhood where i couldn't have at least the right to be free, i mean, that makes me want to move to scotland or china. >> amen. [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up

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we just talked about the emerging leaders in the state, so it's fair we return to the house where an interesting scenario is developing. nancy pelosi is 72 years old, and she spent the last two years insisting her party would win back the house in 2012 to make her speaker again. democrats didn't come close on tuesday, so now the speculation

has begun. will she step aside, and if so who will replace her? steny hoyer? will he get his chance, or like she did two years ago where pelosi decides i'm sticking around? joining us to fill us in on all the developments in the house is nbc's luke russert. luke, there is the story of nancy pelosi and steny hoyer goes back 50 years. on another day when we have more time, i want to get into it. >> both interns in that senate maryland office. >> senator brewster. the question in the immediate term is this. if she were to step aside right now, the only guy who has the votes to replace here is tenney hoyer. she's stoking speculation she might leave, but what is the scuttle but there? is she still the deck tim leader when this is over? >> in preparation for this segment i made calls to folks about what she thought would help behind the scenes.

a small group thinks pelosi could stay, and she enjoys the fund-raising aspect and being part of the conversation. if she wants to stay, it's all hers. if she goes, there's speculation she can appoint her own successor, perhaps somebody who is more appealing to the liberals within her caucus. the caucus is more liberal in the last election to supersede steny hoyer. from conversations i've had recently folks asay steny hoyer because of his personal relationships in congress over the decades he's been there would be able to be leader if pelosi would step away. there's a strong feeling that she could not designate somebody else or would she to jump over him. all that being said, though, you don't know about these things especially amongst democrats because there's so much jockeying for positions in thele meeting happened behind closed doors. >> steny hoyer and nancy pelosi are up there in the age a bit. who are the up and coming

potential future leaders of the democratic party in the house? >> it's interesting. you have debbie wasserm wasserman-schultz and also in that group joe crowley, the new york, is somebody that is looked at. jared po li s of colorado and xavier. there's joe kennedy iii in massachusetts and tammy duckworth who was just elected from the younger set look at age differential, joe kennedy iii only in his early 30s. a lot hope he's a force because of the fund-raising apparatus he could have amongst house democrats. >> let's go to republicans, luke. talk about the young guns over there. they were often at odds with speaker boehner over the past four years. what do you think of their influence going forward?

>> i think that their influence going forward pertains to the sif war within the gop. there's a decision they have to be more conservative or moderate? the same leaders go forward. eric cantor has not had nearly the preference that he had at the beginning of the 112th congress since the debt limit deal. it took a lot out of him. his advisers pull him back. if there's a huge legislative grand bargain that is upsetting to conservatives, could that mean that john boehner would be done being speaker by 2014? there's certainly a chance, given the amount of time that the party faithful and the grassroots could assemble around somebody else. right now it looks like the status quo within the house gop conference unless kathy mcmorris rogers will become the chairman as that has opened up. everything you ever wanted to

know about house gop politics, s.e. >> good stuff, luke. >> the funniest thing is boehner doesn't have anything to worry about because who would want to be the speaker right now? the republicans are so hard to read at this point. thank you for joining us. straight ahead, the reason we play all the police music, the guitarist of one of the greatest rock bands of all time and a rejd in his right, andy summers, giving up my seat for him. he's coming up next. [ man ] december 7th.

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this is it. this is what you get. >> at the moment i want he to fight. >> you do? >> i promise you. >> okay. >> i tell you what. should we film me whipping sting? that would be good, wouldn't it? >> okay. >> let's go. >> the police are one of the greatest bands of the '70s and '80s led by sting. andy summers was on guitar. they put out a slew of great albums and unforgettable songs like "roxanne," as the grew grew nor successful the band grew apart. when they reported the last album, they made it with each man playing his part in separate rooms and figts over the fixes. it's fascinating the album was so awesome. to find out why let's welcome andy summers. how is it that a band going through such discourse in your

prelude to a divorce there, how can you make a great album? you're not a first band to go through it. you lived through that. how does a band come up with great music? >> it's a complex question, because i think, a, you need that confrontation and spark. that's what makes all the great bands, i think. >> really? >> it provides a sem industry for volatile and more spark in it. that connects with an audience. hopefully you get into the music as well. >> it wasn't despite the tension but in part because of that? >> it really -- no. it's so complicated here. it's like you end up with that thing like one of the beatles said, you can only understand it by being in the band itself. only three know the experience. >> is it because it makes you competitive and more productive that way? >> it's rivalry and

competitiveness. >> uh-huh. >> it's all these things. you know, there's a sort of necessary friction that occurs. you kind of want that chemistry. okay. let's go the other way. take out three mellow guys that get on really well. guys who ge well -- >> where is the excitement. >> sounds like the beatles before yoko comes along. they kind of got along. but you lay all the blame at the feet of sting, his egotism, his selfishness, when he's stealing the tape. you keep putting it on him in the film. >> you're talking about the film. i think it's true, but, you know, i'm not going to sit here and demonize sting. i don't want to do that because he is a great musician and a great singer, as i am a great guitar player and stu is a great drummer. we need all these things. we're getting into it. you're getting me going. >> that's the point. >> it was the truth. when i wrote the book and

subsequently made this film, i wasn't interested in sanitizing anything. you've got to present an honest story that shows warts and all because i think that's what's really compelling for people. of course, this is a story that's full of all the troubles that go with it. doesn't mat fer it's judy garland, the police, the rolling stones, whoever it is. there's going to be a shadow side, particularly in today's world, people are really interested. it's not all just shine. >> but it wasn't a one-man problem. there was -- it was one man causing the problem. >> okay. you say that. you go with that. >> let me -- >> i'll -- >> let me ask you about that darker side. not just about the police. we hear all these stories of people who achieve great success, great fame, and they're miserable, depressed, addicted to drugs, suicidasuicidal. does fame change a person or is it people who are attracted to seek fame have some sort of --

they're sort of damaged in a way. >> i think it's both those things but i think that, you know, okay you get into being famous and usually power goes along with it and money also, these things do change you, there's no question about it. you know, some peep donople don handle it well and break early and go away from it. some people are able to handle it but they probably lose sight of a lot of things in life so they don't treat people right and then maybe to sustain that kind of being on all the time, you take to using drugs or whatever. we all know these stories, but having lived through it somewhat, i say it's all true, and, you know, you have to find a way to get through it. you know, you don't want to sort of talk about i'm suffering because i'm famous. >> nobody wants to hear that. >> that's rubbish. on the other hand, you know, let's just say to be a great musician play in front of a lot of people, you're very privileged to be in this

position but it does take some sort of personal strength to sustain it and keep going through it. >> and people don't realize how hard it is to be a rock star. nobody wants to hear the complaint but they don't realize how hard it is and you guys put reggae music into the pop world. congratulations on that. thank you for being here. andy summers, watch the film. up next, steve gets his chair back and tells us why the whole fiscal cliff thing makes him want to jump off a cliff. we head to the tune celebrating the lady who booked andy, sasha, it's for you. ♪ every step you take i'll be watching you ♪

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i know it has a catchy ring to it, i know you have used it before myself, and i know i will probably use it again, but i really don't like the term "facecle cliff." . it's misleading. the idea which you have already heard hundreds of times this year is the country will face a sudden traumatic crisis on january 1st unless democrats and republicans in washington come together and strike some kind of a grand bargain on taxes, spending, and the deficit. but that is not a good way to understand what we're facing here. the reality is that the cliff is really more of a slope. a gradual slope. it works like this. if nothing happens between now and the end of the year, then on january 1st the bush tax cuts expire, the alternative minimum tax reaches further down the ladder and the payroll tax rates reve revert. this is the critical point. this will not all happen at once. it's not like john and jane

taxpayer will wake up on january 1st and be socked with a bill for $3,000. only the payroll tax hike goes into effect right away. it willing months before taxpayers are hit with a higher amt, ditto for the scary spending kuts you're hearing about. why is the gradual nature of the fiscal slope so important? because it means there is time after january 1st for congress and the white house to reach a deal, lots of time. and in one hugely important area, president obama and democrats can get a much, much better deal if they wait until after january 1st. this has to do with the bush tax cuts. actually, just a part of the bush tax cuts. those would affect the top 2% of income earners. obama was just re-elected on a platform of ending them on income over $250,000. he campaigned on this and he won, but already republicans from house speaker john boehner on down are saying what every single republican in congress has said for 22 years now, absolutely under no circumstance will we vote for any deal that

raises income tax rates on the wealthy. this is not on exaggeration. there was a republican civil war over this issue in 1990 when george bush sr. broke that dumb read my lip pledge. ever since then the gop position has been unanimous, absolute, and impossible to break. the gradual fiscal slope gives obama and democrats something they haven't had that often, leverage. all they have to do to get rid of the bush tax cuts on the rich is nothing. sit on their hands between now and january 1st and they will go away, and then there will be time, plenty of time, for obama and the new more liberal senate to set the terms for a truly balanced deal with republicans. one that extends the bush rates for the middle class, spares millions of americans from the amt and averts the worths of the spending cuts and, wait for it, actually includes a modest tax hike on income over a quarter of a million dollars. for all the republicans out there, yes, entitlements could probably be part of that deal, too. if the bush tax cuts for the rich are ever going to disappear, thi